I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. I dispense paz (peace) in the form of computer education classes. And I blog about it.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

dominican mysteries

Life here is still going pretty splendidly, but I do have a few cultural mysteries for you all to ponder:

1.) Juan Pablo Duarte’s hairstyle. J-Pabs Duarte is basically the Dominican George Washington. He’s a cool dude, but he is always, always portrayed as having this totally awesome flippy-do hairstyle. I have no idea how he managed to maintain such a hairstyle, or, if he did not, in fact, maintain such a hairstyle, why he is always portrayed with it.

Seriously, how?

2.) Why in the world do Dominican men think that hissing at women is a good way to attract favorable attention?

3.) Dominican taste in food tends heavily towards the sweet. I’ve been served Kool-Aid with (completely unnecessary) extra sugar more times than I can count, and every morning my coffee has a thick crust of sugar at the bottom. And yet there is hardly any chocolate here. It’s good, guys! And it’s sweet! (Dark chocolate is too much to hope for here, regrettably.)

4.) When someone is walking on a road, and a motorcycle comes along, and there is nothing else on the road, only a person and a motorcycle, why does the motorcyclist have to swerve closer to the person? Further evidence needed on the subject of whether this happens to everyone, or only Americans.

5.) Baby chicks: how are they so cute?

6.) This one is only valid in my house: why is there always pee on the toilet seat?? I exaggerate; not always, only about 90% of the time is there pee on the toilet seat. Granted, there are 3 males in the house, but I would think at the very least the Don should be able to aim. The 12 and 9-year-old boys don’t really have much of an excuse in my book.